Water activities can be very dangerous, as the risk of drowning is ever present. Conventional flotation devices (including personal flotation devices) aim to keep water goers substantially above a water level to minimize the risk of and hopefully avoid drowning
However, in the event of several water goers being at higher risk of drowning at in the same area, conventional flotation devices do nothing to keep the water goers near each other. The risk of floating apart or drifting away is great. Attempting to hold one another uses precious energy of the water goers that may be needed for other life-saving activities, such as treading water, swimming, flagging down help, yelling, and the like.